Body-Worn Versus Bell-and-Pad Alarm Device for the Management of Monosymptomatic Nocturnal Enuresis in Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of bell-and-pad alarm therapy to body-worn alarm therapy for the management of monosymptomatic enuresis in children 6 to 16 years of age. DESIGN: A prospective, randomized, adaptive clinical control trial. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: The sample comprised 86 children who attended a continence clinic for treatment of monosymptomatic enuresis and met the criteria for enuresis alarm therapy as per International Children's Continence Society (ICCS) guidelines. Subjects were randomly allocated to an experimental group (body-worn alarm, n = 41) or a control group (bell-and-pad alarm, n = 45). The study setting was a single-site specialist continence service in regional Victoria, Australia. Treatment was administered in the child's home. METHODS: Alarm therapy was administered by the child and/or parent for an initial period of 8 weeks at which time the child underwent a review with the continence nurse specialist. If the child had achieved 14 consecutive dry nights, the therapy was deemed successful and ceased. Children who had not become dry continued therapy for a further 8 weeks up to a maximum of 16 weeks, with a final review was instituted. Each child kept a diary for the duration of alarm therapy to report on frequency of wet/dry nights, times of alarm, response to alarm, and response to sensation to void (without alarm). The 2 types of alarm devices were compared with respect to categorical variables using dichotomous cross-tabulations and χ tests of independence based on the most positive outcome versus the other outcomes. RESULTS: Dryness in accordance with the criteria outlined by the ICCS guidelines was achieved in 18 children (43.9%) in the body-worn alarm group versus 29 children (64.4%) in the routine (bell-and-pad) group (P = .056). The bell-and-pad alarm performed better on 7 out of the 9 indicators, including the primary outcome measure of the child attained dryness for 14 nights or more, nightly alarm use, alarm woke child, alarm woke parent (P = .022), false (positive) alarms (P = .039), child turned alarm off and went back to sleep (P = .003), and child was compliant with alarm use. The body-worn device produced higher proportions of the most positive outcomes for 2 of the 9 indicators: relapse (P = .076) and false (negative) nonalarms (P = .066). CONCLUSIONS: Study findings suggests that the bell-and-pad alarm is preferable to the body-worn alarm. Additional research is recommended using other body-worn alarm devices across a larger population in order to establish the more definitive findings needed for clinical decision-making.

The influence of nursing activities score on clinical alarms service.

OBJECTIVES: to estimate the magnitude of the Nursing Activities Score effect on multiparametric monitor alarm response and staff response time. METHODS: an observational, cross-sectional study outlined as an open cohort, performed in an Adult General Intensive Care Unit. The time taken for alarms triggered by the multi-parameter monitors was timed and characterized as attended or not. RESULTS: the study obtained a total of 254 alarms triggered from the multiparameter monitors of 63 patients. The mean number of alarms triggered was 4.5 alarms per period/observation and 1.5 alarms/hour. The study showed that the Nursing Activities Score is associated with an additional probability of 4% (p < 0.05) of an alarm being met, for each additional point in the scale, and reduction in team response time. CONCLUSION: it has been verified that Nursing Activities Score has a direct relationship with the attendance and with the response time to the alarms triggered.

Call Bell Usage: Tracking the Effect of Hourly Staff Rounding.

Hourly rounding by nursing staff helps to proactively manage patient needs and minimize the number of unscheduled calls from patients. The focus of this study was to determine if an increased emphasis on hourly rounding had an effect on call bell usage on an oncology unit. Patient call bell usage requests, such as asking for water or repositioning, and the total number of all alarms, such as bed exit alarms and lavatory assist alarms, decreased. Subsequent patient satisfaction surveys showed an increase in patient perception of how quickly help was received.

Alarm Strategies and Surveillance for Mechanical Ventilation.

Clinical alarms, including those for mechanical ventilation, have been one of the leading causes of health technology hazards. It has been reported that < 15% of alarms studied rose to the level of being clinically relevant or actionable. Most alarms in health care, whether by default or intention, are set to a hypothetical average patient, which is essentially a one size fits most approach. A method of tuning to individual patient characteristics is possible, similar to the treatment philosophy of precision medicine. The excessive amount of alarms in a clinical environment is thought to be the largest contributing factor to alarm-related adverse events. All these factors come to bear on human perception and response to mechanical ventilation and clinical alarms. Observations of human response to stimuli suggest that response to alarms is closely matched to the perceived reliability and value of the alarm system. This paper provides a review examining vulnerabilities in the current management of mechanical ventilation alarms and summarizes best practices identified to help prevent patient injury. This review examines the factors that affect alarm utility and provides recommendations for applying research findings to improve safety for patients, clinician efficiency, and clinician well-being.

Nurses' responses to monitor alarms in an intensive care unit: An observational study.

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to determine the types of monitor alarms and nurses' responses to them in an adult intensive care unit. DESIGN AND METHODS: This was an observational descriptive research study conducted in the adult intensive care unit of a university hospital in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. The nonparticipant observation method was used. Data were collected by two observers using a semi-structured observation form developed according to literature. RESULTS: Between August 2016 and January 2017, 13 registered nurses were observed for 328 hours. There were 1781 alarms, which included alarms for blood pressure (37.6%), respiration and oxygen saturation (35.3%) and heart rate and arrhythmia (27.1%). Nurses responded to approximately half (46.9%) of the alarms that required a response. Responses to alarms included silencing them, responding to the patient's clinical condition and solving contact and transmission problems. CONCLUSION: In the present study, according to response requirement, the division of the alarms was different. The number of alarms that do not reflect the clinical status of the patient was high. It was found that as the false alarm rate increased, the response rate of nurses to these alarms decreased.

Effect of a deep-learning computer-aided detection system on adenoma detection during colonoscopy (CADe-DB trial): a double-blind randomised study.

BACKGROUND: Colonoscopy with computer-aided detection (CADe) has been shown in non-blinded trials to improve detection of colon polyps and adenomas by providing visual alarms during the procedure. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of a CADe system that avoids potential operational bias. METHODS: We did a double-blind randomised trial at the endoscopy centre in Caotang branch hospital of Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital in China. We enrolled consecutive patients (aged 18-75 years) presenting for diagnostic and screening colonoscopy. We excluded patients with a history of inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, or colorectal surgery or who had a contraindication for biopsy; we also excluded patients who had previously had an unsuccessful colonoscopy and who had a high suspicion for polyposis syndromes, inflammatory bowel disease, and colorectal cancer. We allocated patients (1:1) to colonoscopy with either the CADe system or a sham system. Randomisation was by computer-generated random number allocation. Patients and the endoscopist were unaware of the random assignment. To achieve masking, the output of the system was shown on a second monitor that was only visible to an observer who was responsible for reporting the alerts. The primary outcome was the adenoma detection rate (ADR), which is the proportion of individuals having a complete colonoscopy, from caecum to rectum, who had one or more adenomas detected. The primary analysis was per protocol. We also analysed characteristics of polyps and adenomas missed initially by endoscopists but detected by the CADe system. This trial is complete and is registered with http://www.chictr.org.cn, ChiCTR1800017675. FINDINGS: Between Sept 3, 2018, and Jan 11, 2019, 1046 patients were enrolled to the study, of whom 36 were excluded before randomisation, 508 were allocated colonoscopy with polyp detection using the CADe system, and 502 were allocated colonoscopy with the sham system. After further excluding patients who met exclusion criteria, 484 patients in the CADe group and 478 in the sham group were included in analyses. The ADR was significantly greater in the CADe group than in the sham group, with 165 (34%) of 484 patients allocated to the CADe system having one or more adenomas detected versus 132 (28%) of 478 allocated to the sham system (odds ratio 1·36, 95% CI 1·03-1·79; p=0·030). No complications were reported among all colonoscopy procedures. Polyps initially missed by the endoscopist but identified by the CADe system were generally small in size, isochromatic, flat in shape, had an unclear boundary, were partly behind colon folds, and were on the edge of the visual field. INTERPRETATION: Polyps initially missed by the endoscopist had characteristics that are sometimes difficult for skilled endoscopists to recognise. Such polyps could be detected using a high-performance CADe system during colonoscopy. The effect of CADe during colonoscopy on the incidence of interval colorectal cancer should be investigated. FUNDING: None.

Single-modal and multi-modal false arrhythmia alarm reduction using attention-based convolutional and recurrent neural networks.

This study proposes a deep learning model that effectively suppresses the false alarms in the intensive care units (ICUs) without ignoring the true alarms using single- and multi- modal biosignals. Most of the current work in the literature are either rule-based methods, requiring prior knowledge of arrhythmia analysis to build rules, or classical machine learning approaches, depending on hand-engineered features. In this work, we apply convolutional neural networks to automatically extract time-invariant features, an attention mechanism to put more emphasis on the important regions of the segmented input signal(s) that are more likely to contribute to an alarm, and long short-term memory units to capture the temporal information presented in the signal segments. We trained our method efficiently using a two-step training algorithm (i.e., pre-training and fine-tuning the proposed network) on the dataset provided by the PhysioNet computing in cardiology challenge 2015. The evaluation results demonstrate that the proposed method obtains better results compared to other existing algorithms for the false alarm reduction task in ICUs. The proposed method achieves a sensitivity of 93.88% and a specificity of 92.05% for the alarm classification, considering three different signals. In addition, our experiments for 5 separate alarm types leads significant results, where we just consider a single-lead ECG (e.g., a sensitivity of 90.71%, a specificity of 88.30%, an AUC of 89.51 for alarm type of Ventricular Tachycardia arrhythmia).

Searching for meaning in sound: Learning and interpreting alarm signals in visual environments.

Given the ease with which the diverse array of environmental sounds can be understood, the difficulties encountered in using auditory alarm signals on medical devices are surprising. In two experiments, with nonclinical participants, alarm sets which relied on similarities to environmental sounds (concrete alarms, such as a heartbeat sound to indicate "check cardiovascular function") were compared to alarms using abstract tones to represent functions on medical devices. The extent to which alarms were acoustically diverse was also examined: alarm sets were either acoustically different or acoustically similar within each set. In Experiment 1, concrete alarm sets, which were also acoustically different, were learned more quickly than abstract alarms which were acoustically similar. Importantly, the abstract similar alarms were devised using guidelines from the current global medical device standard (International Electrotechnical Commission 60601-1-8, 2012). Experiment 2 replicated these findings. In addition, eye tracking data showed that participants were most likely to fixate first on the correct medical devices in an operating theater scene when presented with concrete acoustically different alarms using real world sounds. A new set of alarms which are related to environmental sounds and differ acoustically have therefore been proposed as a replacement for the current medical device standard. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Smooth or Stepped? Laboratory Comparison of Enhanced Sonifications for Monitoring Patient Oxygen Saturation.

BACKGROUND: The pulse oximeter (PO) provides anesthesiologists with continuous visual and auditory information about a patient's oxygen saturation (SpO2). However, anesthesiologists' attention is often diverted from visual displays, and clinicians may inaccurately judge SpO2 values when relying on conventional PO auditory tones. We tested whether participants could identify SpO2 value (e.g., "97%") better with acoustic enhancements that identified three discrete clinical ranges by either changing abruptly at two threshold values (stepped-effects) or changing incrementally with each percentage value of SpO2 (smooth-effects). METHOD: In all, 79 nonclinicians participated in a between-subjects experiment that compared performance of participants using the stepped-effects display with those who used the smooth-effects display. In both conditions, participants heard sequences of 72 tones whose pitch directly correlated to SpO2 value, and whose value could change incrementally. Primary outcome was percentage of responses that correctly identified the absolute SpO2 percentage, ±1, of the last pulse tone in each sequence. RESULTS: Participants using the stepped-effects auditory tones identified absolute SpO2 percentage more accurately (M = 53.7%) than participants using the smooth-effects tones (M = 47.9%, p = .038). Identification of range and detection of transitions between ranges showed even stronger advantages for the stepped-effects display (p < .005). CONCLUSION: The stepped-effects display has more pronounced auditory cues at SpO2 range transitions, from which participants can better infer absolute SpO2 values. Further development of a smooth-effects display for this purpose is not necessary.

Customizing Physiologic Alarms in the Emergency Department: A Regression Discontinuity, Quality Improvement Study.

INTRODUCTION: Clinical alarms promote patient safety by alerting clinicians when there is an indication or change in a condition requiring a response. An excessive volume of alarm fires, however, contributes to sensory overload and desensitization, referred to as alarm fatigue, which has significant implications when alarms are missed. This evidence-based, practice project aimed to implement and evaluate a program that reduces the number of clinically nonactionable, physiologic alarms in an emergency department. Although alarm fatigue is an important negative consequence, the focus of this project is not on alarm fatigue but on measures to reduce the volume of clinically nonactionable alarms that lead to alarm fatigue. The Iowa Model was used as a conceptual framework. METHODS: This project involved adjusting default alarm settings and implementing an education plan on the safe use of alarms. The sample population included all patients on physiologic monitors at an emergency department. Retrospective data were collected, and regression discontinuity design was applied to compare the rate of alarm fires triggered by the physiologic monitor between pre- and postimplementation of an alarm protocol. RESULTS: A significant change in the rate of alarm fires occurred with an estimated reduction of 14.96 (P = 0.003). There were no reports of adverse outcomes such as a delay in responding to a change in patient condition or delay leading to cardiopulmonary arrest. DISCUSSION: A reduction in nonactionable, physiologic alarms was attained after implementing multimodal strategies inclusive of adjusting default settings, staff education on managing alarms, and emphasis on staff accountability.

The influence of nursing activities score on clinical alarms service / La influencia de la nursing activities score en el servicio de alarmas clínicas / A influência do nursing activities score no atendimento aos alarmes clínicos

ABSTRACT Objectives: to estimate the magnitude of the Nursing Activities Score effect on multiparametric monitor alarm response and staff response time. Methods: an observational, cross-sectional study outlined as an open cohort, performed in an Adult General Intensive Care Unit. The time taken for alarms triggered by the multi-parameter monitors was timed and characterized as attended or not. Results: the study obtained a total of 254 alarms triggered from the multiparameter monitors of 63 patients. The mean number of alarms triggered was 4.5 alarms per period/observation and 1.5 alarms/hour. The study showed that the Nursing Activities Score is associated with an additional probability of 4% (p < 0.05) of an alarm being met, for each additional point in the scale, and reduction in team response time. Conclusion: it has been verified that Nursing Activities Score has a direct relationship with the attendance and with the response time to the alarms triggered.

RESUMEN Objetivos: estimar la magnitud del efecto del Nursing Activities Score en la atención a las alarmas de los monitores multiparamétricos y en el tiempo de respuesta del equipo. Métodos: estudio observacional, seccional delineado como una cohorte abierta, realizado en una Unidad de Terapia Intensiva General de Adultos. El tiempo hasta la atención de las alarmas disparadas de los monitores multiparamétricos fue cronometrado y caracterizados como atendidos o no. Resultados: el estudio obtuvo un total de 254 alarmas disparadas de los monitores multiparamétricos de 63 pacientes. El promedio de alarmas disparadas fue de 4,5 alarmas por período/observación y 1,5 alarmas/hora. El estudio demostró que el Nursing Activities Score está asociado a una probabilidad adicional de 4% (p < 0,05) de una alarma ser atendida, para cada punto adicional en la escala, y reducción en el tiempo de respuesta del equipo. Conclusiones: se verificó que Nursing Activities Score tiene relación directa con la atención y con el tiempo de respuesta a las alarmas disparadas.

RESUMO Objetivos: estimar a magnitude do efeito do Nursing Activities Score no atendimento aos alarmes dos monitores multiparamétricos e no tempo de resposta da equipe. Métodos: estudo observacional, seccional delineado como coorte aberta, realizado em uma Unidade de Terapia Intensiva geral de adultos. O tempo até o atendimento dos alarmes disparados dos monitores multiparamétricos foi cronometrado e caracterizado como atendido ou não. Resultados: o estudo obteve um total de 254 alarmes disparados dos monitores multiparamétricos de 63 pacientes. A média de alarmes disparados foi de 4,5 alarmes por período/observação e 1,5 alarmes/hora. O estudo demonstrou que o Nursing Activities Score está associado a uma probabilidade adicional de 4% (p < 0,05) de um alarme ser atendido, para cada ponto adicional na escala, e redução no tempo de resposta da equipe. Conclusões: verificou-se que Nursing Activities Score possui relação direta com o atendimento e com o tempo de resposta aos alarmes disparados.

The use of the Modified Early Obstetric Warning System (MEOWS) in women after pregnancies: a descriptive study / Aplicação do Modified Early Obstetric Warning System (MEOWS) em mulheres após gestações: um estudo descritivo

Abstract Objectives: to evaluate the modified early obstetric warning system (MEOWS) in women after pregnancies in a tertiary hospital in Brazil. Methods: a descriptive study was conducted with 705 hospitalized women. Vital signs (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature) and lochia were registered on medical records and transcribed into the MEOWS chart of physiological parameters. On this graphic chart, yellow alerts were used to present moderate abnormalities in vital signs, while severe abnormalities were presented in red. The presence of at least one red alert or two yellow alerts were triggered to indicate the need for medical evaluation. Results: although abnormalities were found in the physiological parameters of 49.8% of the women identified from MEOWS triggers, medical evaluation was only requested for three patients (0.8%). Conclusions: in a retrospective application of the use of MEOWS showed a significant number of patients had triggered in which the nursing team did not recognize 99.2% of cases. This finding could be attributed to the fact that MEOWS has not been yet adopted in this service as part of the nursing care. The application of this tool would result in a better care because critical situations would be recognized and corrected quickly, avoiding unfavorable outcomes.

Resumo Objetivos: avaliar o modified early obstetric warning system (MEOWS) em mulheres após gestações, em um hospital terciário do Brasil. Métodos: foi realizado um estudo descritivo incluindo 705 mulheres internadas. Os sinais vitais (pressão arterial sistólica e diastólica, frequência cardíaca, frequência respiratória, temperatura) e lóquios, registrados no prontuário, foram transcritos para o gráfico de parâmetros fisiológicos do MEOWS. Neste gráfico, anormalidades moderadas nos sinais vitais eram sinalizadas por alertas amarelos, enquanto anormalidades graves eram sina-lizadas em vermelho. A presença de, pelo menos, um alerta vermelho ou dois alertas amarelos foi chamada de eventos gatilho, indicando necessidade de avaliação médica. Resultados: dentre as mulheres estudadas, 49,8% apresentaram anormalidades nos parâmetros fisiológicos, através da identificação de eventos gatilho no MEOWS, porém avaliação médica foi solicitada para apenas três pacientes, resultando num percentual de 0,8%. Conclusões: a utilização do MEOWS, de forma retrospectiva, evidenciou uma quantidade significativa de pacientes apresentando eventos gatilho, os quais não foram reconhecidos pela equipe de enfermagem em 99,2% dos casos. Este achado pode ser atribuído ao fato de o MEOWS ainda não ser adotado no serviço como parte da rotina dos cuidados de enfermagem. A aplicação dessa ferramenta resultaria numa assistência melhor, pois situações críticas seriam reconhecidas e corrigidas com maior precocidade, evitando desfechos desfavoráveis.

Recommendation of New Medical Alarms Based on Audibility, Identifiability, and Detectability in a Randomized, Simulation-Based Study.

OBJECTIVES: Accurate and timely identification of existing audible medical alarms is not adequate in clinical settings. New alarms that are easily heard, quickly identifiable, and discernable from one another are indicated. The "auditory icons" (brief sounds that serve as metaphors for the events they represent) have been proposed as a replacement to the current international standard. The objective was to identify the best performing icons based on audibility and performance in a simulated clinical environment. DESIGN: Three sets of icon alarms were designed using empirical methods. Subjects participated in a series of clinical simulation experiments that examined the audibility, identification accuracy, and response time of each of these icon alarms. A statistical model that combined the outcomes was used to rank the alarms in overall efficacy. We constructed the "best" and "worst" performing sets based on this ranking and prospectively validated these sets in a subsequent experiment with a new subject sample. SETTING: Experiments were conducted in simulated ICU settings at the University of Miami. SUBJECTS: Medical trainees were recruited from a convenience sample of nursing students and anesthesia residents at the institution. INTERVENTIONS: In Experiment 1 (formative testing), subjects were exposed to one of the three sets of alarms; identical setting and instruments were used throughout. In Experiment 2 (summative testing), subjects were exposed to one of the two sets of alarms, assembled from the best and worst performing alarms from Experiment 1. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: For each alarm, we determined the minimum sound level to reach audibility threshold in the presence of background clinical noise, identification accuracy (percentage), and response time (seconds). We enrolled 123 medical trainees and professionals for participation (78 with < 6 yr of training). We identified the best performing icon alarms for each category, which matched or exceeded the other candidate alarms in identification accuracy and response time. CONCLUSIONS: We propose a set of eight auditory icon alarms that were selected through formative testing and validated through summative testing for adoption by relevant regulatory bodies and medical device manufacturers.

Factors Influencing Use of Continuous Physiologic Monitors for Hospitalized Pediatric Patients.

OBJECTIVES: Continuous physiologic monitors (CPMs) generate frequent alarms and are used for up to 50% of children who are hospitalized outside of the ICU. Our objective was to assess factors that influence the decision to use CPMs. METHODS: In this qualitative study, we used group-level assessment, a structured method designed to engage diverse stakeholder groups. We recruited clinicians and other staff who work on a 48-bed hospital medicine unit at a freestanding children's hospital. We developed a list of open-ended prompts used to address CPM use on inpatient units. Demographic data were collected from each participant. We conducted 6 sessions to permit maximum participation among all groups, and themes from all sessions were merged and distilled. RESULTS: Participants (n = 78) included nurses (37%), attending physicians (17%), pediatric residents (32%), and unit staff (eg, unit coordinator; 14%). Participants identified several themes. First, there are patient factors (eg, complexity and instability) for which CPMs are useful. Second, participants perceived that alarms have negative effects on families (eg, anxiety and sleep deprivation). Third, CPMs are often used as surrogates for clinical assessments. Fourth, CPM alarms cause anxiety and fatigue for frontline staff. Fifth, the decision to use CPMs should be, but is not often, a team decision. Sixth, and finally, there are issues related to the monitor system's setup that reduces its utility. CONCLUSIONS: Hospital medicine staff identified patient-, staff-, and system-level factors relevant to CPM use for children who were hospitalized. These data will inform the development of system-level interventions to improve CPM use and address high alarm rates.

[Performance analysis of the « Blast ¼ flag on ADVIA® 2120/2120i - Results of a multicenter study]. / Analyse de performance de l'alarme « Blastes ¼ sur ADVIA® 2120/2120i ­ Résultats d'une analyse multicentrique.

Nowadays, laboratories have more efficient haematology analyzers. These analyzers have to be used in the most efficient and the most adapted way according to the internal organisation of laboratories and prescribers' expectations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the blast flag on ADVIA 2120/2120i, and to suggest what to do, depending on the flag intensity, to identify positive samples the most surely and the most rapidly as possible. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seven hospital laboratories were included in this prospective study, 148 144 samples of hospital patients were tested during this 4 months study. RESULTS: Sensitivity and specificity of the blast flag are respectively 89,04% and 98,97%. A good correlation between the flag level and the blast count on blood smear is noticed. CONCLUSION: This study could be helpful for laboratories using ADVIA 2120/2120i, to adapt their procedures, depending on the level of the flag provided by the analyser.

Perceptions and practices related to clinical alarms.

BACKGROUND: Clinical alarms represent the top hazard listed in the "Top Ten Health Technology Hazards" report. Frequent false alarms can disrupt patient care and reduce trust in alarms. AIM: The aim of the present study was to investigate the perceptions and practices of critical and noncritical care nurses regarding clinical alarms. METHODOLOGY: This was a descriptive analytical study conducted from October 2016 to February 2017 at three hospitals on 197 nurses at Neyshabur University of Medical Sciences in Neyshabur, Northeastern Iran. Participants were selected through stratified random sampling. The perceptions were measured through the 2011 Health care Technology Foundation Clinical Alarms Survey. RESULTS: More than half of the nurses believed that frequent false alarms reduced trust in alarms, leading nurses to inappropriately disable alarms. The nurses ranked frequent false alarms as the most important issue in response to alarms. More than 60% of the nurses indicated that they needed more training on the use of bedside and central monitors. CONCLUSION: The result of this study suggested that frequent false alarms, as the most important issue related to alarms, should be taken into account by hospital administrators and researchers to decrease alarm fatigue and improve alarm system safety. More specialized clinical policies and procedures for alarm management should also be considered.

Evaluation of Telemetry Utilization on Medical-Surgical Units.

Alarm fatigue is the most common contributing factor in alarm-related sentinel events. Researchers have demonstrated a 35% overuse of telemetry, a key factor in alarm fatigue. This project evaluates practice patterns for the ordering and discontinuation of telemetry on medical-surgical units. Practice patterns were reviewed to determine if they aligned with the American Heart Association evidence-based practice guidelines for telemetry monitoring and whether the order indication was congruent with the patient's clinical status. Nurse's attitudes and practices related to alarm safety were evaluated.